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Hundreds of volunteers pick up litter around the capital city

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BATON ROUGE - Hundreds of people hit the streets Saturday morning with trash bags in hand. It's for a new cleanup campaign that the mayor is hoping will become an annual event.

East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is calling it "Clean Sweep EBR Day." The project is an attack on litter, and she wants everyone to get involved.

Some teenagers even took to the streets in the hot sun to pick up litter along Acadian Thruway in Baton Rouge.

"We're making a change in the community. Making it look better," 17-year-old volunteer Delrick Patin said.

Volunteers came across a wide array of trash.

Jessica Robertson, another teen volunteer said, "This is just the right thing to do. If I'm helping my community, it makes me feel fulfilled."

The teenagers are taking part in Clean Sweep EBR Day, the first of a new annual event. The project started at Star Hill Baptist Church. The church was one of four locations where hundreds of volunteers were dispatched for the city-wide cleanup campaign.

"This is our opportunity, at least once a year, to bring awareness to the community that we should have a zero tolerance for a dirty, unclean community filled with litter," Mayor Broome said.

The mayor also says Clean Sweep Day is the just the kickoff of a bigger campaign, with parish workers attacking larger piles of debris that can't be removed by hand.